sidelined

Like many others, I got caught up in the Sam Stosur story at this week’s French Open. She had an impressive tournament, beating three past and present world number ones to reach the final (four-time champion Justine Henin, 12-time major winner Serena Williams and then Jelena Jankovic), raising Aussie hopes that perhaps she could be our nation’s first holder of the title since Margaret Court in 1973.

A sign of spring is the first call to pre-season cricket training. From this weekend we start preparing for the season ahead. The other sign of spring is the fight for a finals spot in the footy. The eight is not settled just yet with the Eels, Tigers and Bunnies making a play for one [...]

One positive aspect of the Sonny Bill imbroglio is that attention has been turned to what the NRL needs to do to strengthen the game. Some pundits (Andrew Johns for example) have argued that Perth and Adelaide need to included in the competition. However, this would be a huge mistake for the NRL. Now before [...]

In a day and age where so many sports people are as stage managed as politicians it’s refreshing to see there’s at least one guy who likes to let his hair down and not take everything so seriously, especially someone who is the real deal and the number three mens player in the world. The [...]

“Meet Mark. A tall, dark, handsome Australian tennis pro. He has everything. Everything, except … … a world ranking ever to be in double figures again. No, sorry. Wait. Everything, except someone to share it with.” And so, sort of, begins Age of Love the dating reality show starring Our Poo which has just debuted [...]

Contained in a a nice feature piece on Andre Agassi in today’s Oz was this quote. I got to play with three generations, really,” Agassi says. “Maybe more depending on how you count them. I got to see the game from the McEnroe-Connors era to the Lendls, Beckers, Edbergs, Wilanders, to me and Pete and [...]

Apparently Tennis has a problem, participation rates and the game at grass roots levels are in decline, so Tennis Australia has gone to plan B. Tennis Australia has witnessed a loss of interest in the game by people who played as children. Their parents passed the game on to them, but they were not passing [...]

Michael Winkler writes in today’s Crikey: No-one seems to be talking about this any more. The standard of men’s tennis has improved in recent years while the women’s game has wilted. The difference between the power and athleticism of the top male players compared to the top females seems greater now than for some time. [...]

One of the more interesting events of the past tennis week was an outburst of truthiness by world #3 Nikolay Davydenko on the issue of the run up tournaments to the Australian Open. “Because it’s a small tournament. So I don’t think nobody care about here.” He suggested another problem was that the court surface [...]

I’ve been waiting out the egg and spoon events that comprise the majority of the tennis season in the lead up to the Australian Open to end before posting, however, the Roger Rasheed/Lleyton Hewitt bust up calls for some comment. AN extraordinary expletive-laden tirade from Lleyton Hewitt is thought to be behind coach Roger Rasheed [...]